Can you read a book whilst hiding from it behind the sofa?
Doctor Who has always had a reputation for being frightening. Be it through bug-eyed monsters, or traditional horror elements, the show has been scaring viewers since its inception. Some stories may have a different focus—nobody is going to put on Four to Doomsday (1981) as their Halloween viewing—but Doctor Who is rarely better than when it is revelling in its horror influences. Justin Richards’ Grave Matter (2000) is one of a long line of stories that put the scares front and centre. Does it stand up next to such well-regarded horror serials as Pyramids of Mars (1975), or do its spooks feel more like a carnival ghost train?
Placing the Sixth Doctor and Peri on a curious archipelago just off the British coast, the first thing that Grave Matter does right is atmosphere. The island of Dorsill is a delightfully haunting locale, and opening chapters continuously drive home a feeling of a lonely, forgotten island. Cold forests, dark, churning seas, and creaking late-Victorian villages all add up to a setting that seems as lost in the mists of time as it is those of the sea.
The atmosphere is palpable, creating chills even as the Doctor and Peri begin their exploration of the small town they find themselves in. Even as the story unfolds, the world it takes place in is both understated and memorable. The twist that comes early on is enough to separate the island from Doctor Who’s other gothic settings, and the exploration of the setting is never enough to wear out its welcome. The combined effect of all this is that the atmosphere is by far the book’s strongest point, serving as a perfect setting for the story it contains.
The story itself is similarly enjoyable. What begins as a ghost story that would fit right in amongst the Fourth Doctor and Leela’s adventures eventually grows into a sci-fi horror show that could only truly belong in the Sixth Doctor’s wheelhouse.
An early encounter with a Wildman in the forests outside the town leads to the Doctor and Peri step into a community with more secrets than even its inhabitants realise. From there, mystery after mystery begins to pile on, leading to a deeply evocative pastiche of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). Make no mistake, the later chapters of Grave Matter are gruesome, blood-soaked, and at times truly terrifying. Yet, when the pace begins to pick up, and the bodies begin to fall, it is oddly the presence of the Sixth Doctor that keeps everything from falling apart.
The Doctor himself is an unexpected asset to the story in his own right. It is no secret that the Sixth Doctor was loathed and derided for many years after his tenure was cut short. Indeed, his portrayal in The Eight Doctors (1997), released only a few years prior to Grave Matter, has him as a side-lined, blundering brute of a man. Yet, what we see here is nothing less than a firm, yet warm and charming character. Grave Matter is, in effect, a televised Sixth Doctor story that happens to star the Sixth Doctor in his audio form.
The Doctor steals nearly every scene he’s in. His kind-hearted attempts to learn more about the island’s populous are a joy to behold, ranging from teaching card tricks to a group of school children, to sitting down and having a long afternoon chat with a lonely old lady. Later scenes demonstrate the hardness that viewers of his TV adventures will have come to expect, but it is these early scenes of genuine, gentlemanly warmth that truly make the Sixth Doctor the fan-favourite that he is today.
Likewise, Peri takes more from her audio portrayal than her original, televised self. A clear inversion of the Doctor’s hidden softness, the two characters manage to maintain a relationship similar to their on-screen counterparts. Here, however, the bickering feels more light-hearted than anything else.
Instead of coming off as though they can’t stand each other, the Doctor and Peri’s snide remarks feel more like friendly barbs, knocked back and forth in a game of verbal tennis. Peri’s own relationships with the island’s inhabitants are not quite as immediately charming as the Doctor’s, yet they are still fleshed out enough to provide a secondary climax that almost manages to hit harder than the main one. Though it is understandable that a reader may be put off by the dynamic between the Sixth Doctor and Peri, Grave Matter provides one of its better uses.
The largest issue that Grave Matter seems to face is that of pacing. While the characters are never short of things to do, it nevertheless feels like the entire story is slightly too long. An example of this is the plot involving the origin of what is ultimately plaguing the island. It falls into an annoying middle-ground of taking up more time than it had to, while not seeming to be as deep as that time would require. While this is not quite a big enough issue to constitute a major flaw, it still feels as if the ends of each act end up taking just too long to arrive. The end of the second act in particular, having to handle the aforementioned shift from atmosphere-driven gothic horror to the sci-fi bloodbath of the climax. A brief stretch of the novel, again, falls into the middle ground as the narrative gears grind from one setting to another.
Ultimately, Grave Matter is an enjoyable story, pure and simple. It easily draws the reader into its world, and keeps them there with magnetic interactions between its numerous characters. The story that seems familiar at first contains just enough twists to keep the reader hooked. Even then, there are still clear connections to Doctor Who’s horror pedigree, as well as other sci-fi horror classics. The scares, when they arrive, are plentiful, and that aforementioned atmosphere keeps the reader on their toes until then. While it may blend in with the sheer volume of Doctor Who books released in the wilderness years, lacking the eye-catching excellence of an Alien Bodies (1997), or the horror of a Combat Rock (2002), Grave Matter sits firmly on the higher end of the quality scale. If you find yourself starved for a Doctor Who story to curl up with this Halloween, this is definitely a contender.
Just make sure you have some snacks with you behind that sofa.
Will Martin
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